- First off, a quick note regarding my game design textbook: it officially has a name. And it’s…. wait for it…. wait for it…. Video Game Design.
Yeah, not Paving the Pixel Road, which I had proposed and assumed it would be a few months back. My publisher explained his reasoning behind the decision, which I more or less respect (especially about the part about it having a better chance to pop up whenever anyone does a Google or Amazon search… it would be nice for the book to sell after-all).
Earlier this weekend, Saturday night at the Scott McCloud thing at Rocketship to be precise, I mentioned the change in title to Steve and he reminded me of his original idea, which was Matt Hawkins Loves Video Games, with me on the cover giving a huge group hug to Mario, Sonic, and assorted other game characters (I’d love to see Samus in there if it actually did happen).
- Steve also mentioned that he heard the Wii was supposed to come out this week, as a surprise launch, which perfectly illustrated how crazy the video game news and rumor mill has been as of late. There’s several reasons: it’s finally fall and close to the holiday shopping season, we’re finally getting our big end of the year releases, plus the much heralded next generation is finally arriving. Also the Tokyo Game Show is just around the corner (its either this weekend, or the next), which has everyone all hot and bothered, which has led to tons of speculation, some of it rather intriguing and enticing, and some of it flat out ridiculous, which in turn is also intriguing for various reasons.
Aside from all the big revelations, and hopefully some under the radar surprises, I’m just eager to find out what the one new PlayStation One game that’s debuting is going to be (at least there’s supposed to be, according to the show’s PDF, as point out by someone at Insert Credit). Though on a related note, needless to say, I’m pretty bummed out that there won’t be any new Dreamcast game(s).
On a related note, one game I’ll be keeping any eye out for during the show in regards to specific info is Seaman 2, which at point point was supposed to be for the PS2, but then it was apparently announced for the PC, but the pack-in controller totally looks Wii-like.
- So back to the Wii, Nintendo is have huge press conferences in every territory tomorrow, which has been affectionately been dubbed another “Thursdayton” by the fun loving video gaming press (the name stems from a meme over at the Gaming Age Forums… its a long, stupid story). The U.S. event takes place tomorrow starting at 10 in the morning, and goes all the way to 4 (yeah, a whole six hours), but the one that most people are looking towards is the Japanese event of course, which takes place at 2 in the morning, Eastern standard time. And yeah… I might be staying up late tonight to catch all the juicy stuff first-hand.
As for the Wii coming out early, maybe even tomorrow… don’t bank on it, but its not a total impossibility. Some cite Sega and their stealth Saturn launch as being one of the primary reasons why the systems failed, but that was Sega and this is Nintendo, period. I would almost like to see it happen just to see everyone go all ape-shit. But again, I doubt it might happen.
Naturally, most people are dying to know the price is going to be, and some are even thinking (or hoping) that its going to be even less than $200, and at a crazy low price point of $170, maybe even $150. Ummm…. no. I’m pretty sure $199 is the best we can possibly get, which btw is pretty damn good IMHO. But I’m sorta expecting something around $225, pre-loaded with a few things, like the classic controller, maybe a few classic games pre-installed in the Virtual Console hard drive. Either that or points to be used to grab tiles right out of the box. And once again… which btw I’ve been telling people over and over again… don’t expect every single NES, SNES and N64 game all at once, or ever. Unless Capcom decided that they’re sicking of milking Mega Man to death and that its no longer profitable to do so, don’t expect to download Mega Man 2. Though if Nintendo can get that worked out… many people including myself will be ecstatic.
That reminds me, Mega Man XZ came out today. Hmmm…
- On another related note, Sega announced their VC line-up a few days ago, and see what I mean? We’re getting…
Ecco the Dolphin
Altered Beast
Toe Jam & Earl
Golden Axe
Columns
Sonic the Hedgehog
Ristar
… Yeah, pretty boring, eh? Though its nice to see Ristar included. Funny how all of sudden in recent years Sega has decided to recognize and pimp the game. I also heard that you can basically forget about Streets of Rage 1-3 because Yuzo Koshiro holds the copyrights to his scores in the game (hence why they aren’t appearing in that PS2 Genesis collection coming out soon either). And the reason for that is back in the late 80′s or early 90′s, the soundtracks to Y’s & Y’s II were released and would become the highest selling video game soundtracks of all time, which he did, but due to his contract, he never got a dime of it, hence why he’s strongly controlled and upheld his work legally speaking ever since.
- Back to the IC real quick, two interesting bits of stuff from that end: First off, a couple of videos from Shadow of the Colossus that feature assorted glitches in the game. Here’s one video of the main character falling through the ground, and here’s another, plus one taking place among some rocks. And this video simply features Agro, the horse, frozen and in the air.
Call me crazy, but I’ve always been sorta freaked out by glitches in various games. Primarily 3D games. Its hard to explain why. I guess it just feels like you did something you absolutely were not supposed to, and a result the whole world is coming apart or God is punishing you or something. Maybe that’s because the first glitches of its kind, from Super Mario 64, which was the very first game of its kind, were so genuinely freaky, with its black rooms of death and all.
And second, someone pointed towards a new shareware adventure called Aquaria, which features the art of Derek Yu, who was responsible for some really nice Cave Story fan art, among other things.
Yeah, these are actual in-game graphics.
- Oh, and the trailer to the next-gen Star Wars game has just been released, but if you’re expecting it to be the light-sabre game for the Wii which most people assumed was totally on the way (myself included), well, don’t bother clicking the link.
- Speaking of Star Wars, the original, un-altered versions of the trilogy finally came out on DVD yesterday, and as many people already know, the quality is not as many as had hoped. Basically, they’re 4:3 letterboxed non-anamorphic discs made from 13 year old laserdisc masters. I’ll quote the same official explanation form a Lucasfilm PR person that’s been passed around by countless other angry Star Wars nerds over the past few days…
I wanted you to know how much we appreciate the passion and enthusiasm you have for Star Wars, and thank you for sharing your concerns about our upcoming DVD release.
The DVDs being released in September will contain two versions of Star Wars: Episodes IV, V and VI ? the Special Editions (which represent George?s vision of the movies) and the first versions, which will be included as bonus material. We hoped that releasing those ?original? movies on a bonus disc would be a way to have some additional fun with the debut of the movies as individual DVDs. We certainly did not want it to become a source of concern or frustration for any of our fans.
As you may know, an enormous amount of effort was put into digitally restoring the negatives for the Special Editions. In one scene alone, nearly 1 million pieces of dirt had to be removed, and the Special Editions were created through a frame-by-frame digital restoration. The negatives of the movies were permanently altered for the creation of the Special Editions, and existing prints of the first versions are in poor condition.
So many fans have requested the original movies, we wanted to find a way to bring them to you. But since these movies do not represent George’s artistic vision, we could not put the extraordinary time and resources into this project as we did with the Special Editions. The 1993 Laserdisc masters represented the best source for providing the original versions as DVD bonus material. Although these are non-anamorphic versions, they do preserve the original widescreen composition of the movies.
We want you to be aware that we have no plans ? now or in the future ? to restore the earlier versions.
We hope you will understand our decision and, again, want to let you know how much we appreciate your interest and enthusiasm.
Sincerely,
Lynne Hale
… Yeah, that’s pretty lame. Though the worst part of the new editions have to be the box art, which are just so mind-blowingly mediocre and feature such bad Photoshopping that its a crime (in case you haven’t seen it, just take a look at Amazon… all because of Lucas’s insistence on tying them to the other three moves, hence why we’ll never see the original theatrical posters as the covers ever). Many are in total hysterics over the very idea that the original prints were permanently altered and therefore ruined during the process of creating the Special Editions. Some don’t even believe it’s possible and that the originals are safe and sound in some climatrol vault, guarded by some special SWAT team, and ready to be unearthed in 5 to 10 years for yet another re-release, on either Blu-Ray or HD-DVD. And as everyone knows, absolutely no deletes or destroys the original print in the film industry, ever. Lucas couldn’t be that fucking nuts. Right?
Well, I can believe it. Lucas is more than egotistical enough to destroy the originals since they don’t hold up to his intended “vision” as he’s reminded us every chance he’s had over the past how many years.
But the primary reason why everyone’s all pissy is because the DVDs are less than perfect, and flat-out outraged with the idea of having to buy yet another imperfect edition of Star Wars (though the fact that Star Wars fans keep buying such shit time and time again is the primary reason why much of this has happened in the first place). To the point that now anyone who buys the Star Wars movies are idiots, at least in the eyes of the techno-snobs. Hence why I personally am not all that upset, because I don’t have a particularly high-end set-up that would take advantage of all the bells and whistles that would make the movies look extra spiffy. And that’s pretty much the bottom line, at least for me.
I actually bought Empire Strikes Back earlier today… I had to fight the temptation by the idea of getting all three, especially the chance to not see “Episode 4″ in the title crawl of Star Wars, or to hear all the original music in Jedi, but its Empire that I ultimately care about the most. I guess its also because they aren’t stand-alone movies but come packaged with the 2004 Special Editions, which I already have (not that I paid for it), so just the idea having three of each movie on DVD just feels stupid.
At least now I can play the movie in the background and do my work, without having to cringe whenever Boba Fett speaks since it’ll be the original voice. Plus I’m eager to try out the Lego Star Wars II demo that’s included…
- And speaking of both movies and video games, I just wanted everyone that I finally have my own regular column over at GameSetWatch! It’s going to be called Cinema Pixeldiso (you know… like Cinema Paradiso… get it?… yeah) and I’ll be reviewing movies that are either based upon video games, or deals with them. So expect me to go over the classics, as well as some forgotten gems, plus a foreign flick here and there. I’m actually in the middle of putting the final touches of my first review, which I’ll be passing along to Simon a bit later, and hopefully he’ll have enough time to post it before heading off to the Japan for TGS. So keep an eye out for it, anytime between later tonight and after the weekend.
- Finally, as I mentioned before, I finally have a director’s account over at YouTube and have plans to upload all the crazy shit I have from my mini-stockpile of VHS tapes. But recently I finally posted the one thing which simply defies all proper description, common sense, let alone logic, the laws of nature, as well as the taste. It’s a film that’s completely written, produced, filmed, edited, and acted by people with special needs. It’s also just a little karate movie.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you… Karate Ruler.
EDIT: I should maybe note that for years Karate Ruler has been the ultimate litmus test among my friends to see who’s easily offended (i.e. has the same sense of humor as I do) or not.
